Abstract

Many applications dealing with complex processes require database support for nested transactions. Current commercial database systems lack this kind of support, offering flat, non-nested transactions only. This paper presents a three-layer architecture for implementing nested transaction support on a commercial multi-database environment. The architecture is directed at high portability and flexibility. The modular approach and the simple, event driven interfaces between the layers of the architecture enable the nested transaction support to be adapted to various applications, nested transaction models and database management systems. The architecture has been implemented to support a prototype of a commercial next-generation workflow management system.

Keywords

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The work presented in this paper is supported by the European Commission in the WIDE Project (ESPRIT No. 20280). Partners in WIDE are Sema Group sae and Hospital General de Manresa in Spain, Politectnico di Milano in Italy, ING Bank and University of Twente in the Netherlands.